Warning: Don't Pick the Wrong Dog

The Perils of Being A Dog Show Judge

Westminster judge Cindy Vogels (near right) drew criticism last year for picking Malachy, a Pekingese, as Best in Show. With Malachy is David Fitzpatrick, his co-owner and handler.
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By

Ben Cohen

Updated Feb. 11, 2013 11:54 p.m. ET

Cindy Vogels had a litter of options for Best in Show at last year's Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. As the final judge, she could have chosen a German Shepherd, a Doberman pinscher or even a Dalmatian.

One person, Vogels said, called the Pekingese "that awful dog." Vogels recalled another saying: "Why would you give Best in Show to the dog that couldn't walk?"

"The American public was horrified," Vogels said. "The public has no appreciation for a Pekingese."

It is the ultimate honor for a show judge to name the Best in Show winner at Westminster, the year's glitziest dog show, which concludes Tuesday at Madison Square Garden. But it also can bring out the worst in people.

The Wall Street Journal takes a close-up look at the many canine mugs in the 137th Westminster Kennel Club dog show. The annual show, which features 187 dog breeds and varieties, concludes Tuesday.

Earlier

The math behind this logic is basic: There are 187 breeds, only seven will win their groups and just one will win the opinion of Michael Dougherty, the Best in Show judge on Tuesday.

"You go in there alone," said Elliott Weiss, the 2010 Best in Show judge, "and you come out alone."

In fact, for the Best in Show judges, the entire Westminster show can be weirdly lonely.

Best in Show judges aren't only sequestered from the rest of the show but also avoid all coverage so as not to know which breeds they will see Tuesday night. To pass the time, Weiss watched the Vancouver Olympics. Sari Brewster Tietjen, the 2009 judge, went shopping. "I wasn't far from Fifth Avenue," she said.

The judges enter the Garden through a back door and are given the breed standards, the definitions for each dog's appearance and movement, of the seven group winners. By that time, the Westminster crowd and television audience already have picked their favorites.

Those who are familiar with show dogs tend to pull for the best technical dogs, former judges said. They understand what made Malachy such an impeccable Pekingese.

When he won, "the dog people were uniformly delighted," Vogels said.

But those who happen to catch the Westminster show on television "go more on appeal than the standard," said Matthew Stander, co-founder of Dog News, a weekly trade publication.

A ferocious show dog, Malachy entered the Westminster competition ranked second overall in breed points, and he treated the Garden like his personal playground, staring down his opponents with wide eyes and waddling around the ring with his tongue hanging out. Malachy was Michael Jordan with hair—although that wasn't how most people saw the poor little pooch.

Stump, the 10-year-old Sussex spaniel who won Best in Show in 2009, earned more applause in the Garden that year than the Knicks. He was old. He was retired. And he proved himself even more relatable than Uno, the Beagle who took a sledgehammer to people's knees while winning Best in Show a year earlier.

So once he won his breed, and then the group, of course he was the crowd favorite. "Westminster is not that milieu," said Cecelia Ruggles, his owner. "But when Stump was in there, it was mayhem."

Tietjen was the judge who gave the raucous crowd what it wanted—a Best in Show win for Stump—but not because it was what the crowd wanted. "I hadn't even thought about it," she said. "It wasn't up to me to think about what other people would think."

Weiss gave his Best in Show distinction to Sadie, a Scottish terrier, and was greeted with a positive reaction. He called Sadie a "one-percenter," the sort of dog who makes it worth it "when you get to an airport and miss your flight and say to yourself, what the hell am I doing this for?" he said. "Every once in a while, you see a dog that makes your heart beat faster and thrills you a little to see."

Vogels had the only say that mattered last year, and she felt the same way about Malachy, the Pekingese.

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